


End of summer

by hereforthehurts (orphan_account)



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: "take me instead" prompt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Febuwhump, Febuwhump 2021, Gen, Luz has to go back home y'all, Self-Sacrifice, Whump, hurt no comfort actually hehe, mom eda is just tryna protect her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:35:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29221077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/hereforthehurts
Summary: Summer ends, and Luz has to go back home.
Relationships: Eda Clawthorne & Luz Noceda
Comments: 9
Kudos: 37





	End of summer

**Author's Note:**

> for febuwhump day 5: "take me instead" :-)))) you know where this is going

Luz wakes up the familiar darkness of her bedroom room.   
  
  
She could feel a hand on her shoulder before she registers everything else, squeezing her gently. The air was crisp and cold, and darkness was all that she sees before she notices the woman standing on her side, a pair of golden eyes looking at her with a look only Luz knew what it meant.   
  
  
_It’s time._  
  
  
“Now?” Luz whispers.   
  
Eda squeezes her shoulders tighter. “They’re coming.”   
  
She knew this whole thing was coming, too, but she couldn’t help but feel her heart clench every time she thinks about it. Denial was long behind her, and now, there’s only acceptance.   
  
  
  
The thing is, Luz isn’t ready to accept that she has to go just _yet.  
  
  
_ “Come on, Luz.” Eda’s voice was soft, too soft. “I have your bag ready.”   
  
“Okay.”   
  
She slips out of bed, the cold floor greeting her bare feet. Her head spins from the lack of sleep when she stood up, the consequence from falling to sleep so late at night after hours of calls with her friends, and… Amity.   
  
  
  
But she didn’t regret that decision one bit.   
  
“Put on your shoes,” Eda tells her, holding her bag in one hand, and it hurts Luz to realize that maybe, there’s a possibility that Eda would never grow out of her motherly habits. Telling her to put on her shoes. Making breakfast for two. Calling for her to get up and ready for school…  
  
“Don’t take too long, okay?” She says again. “I’ll be waiting for you in the—”  
  
“—No,” Luz stops her before she could walk out the door. “Just—stay. Wait for me. Please.”  
  
Her gaze softens. “Okay.”   
  
  
She sat on the edge of the bed instead, aching as she watches Luz put on her shoes and struggle to keep the tears at bay.   
  
The crying comes slowly, like an inevitable rain, the thick pain rising slowly from the bottom of her chest up to her throat.   
  
  
Luz choked out a sob, and then two. Hot tears spills out of her eyes.   
  
“Hey,” Eda moves to her side, giving her tight squeezes before finally wrapping the smaller girl into a hug, pressing her head against her chest. “It’s okay. You can cry.”   
  
“It hurts,” Luz says between her choppy breaths. “It hurts.”   
  
“I know. It’s okay to hurt.”   
  
“I don’t want to leave.”  
  
“I don’t want you to leave, too,” She says softly, running her fingers through Luz’s messy cut. “But a mother does what she has to do, right? To keep their child safe.” _Her child. Luz._ “To keep _you_ safe.”   
  
“Yeah.”   
  
“Yeah.”   
  
  
Eda gives both of them a couple more minutes of silence, of sobbing and hurting and hugging. Letting go was never the easy part.   
  
  
  
But it was okay. It’s okay.   
  
_It’s okay._  
  
  
  
She opens the portal with a small click, the suitcase unraveling into a portal that would soon take her girl away. She held Luz for a little more while, more hugging and sobbing and inhaling each other’s scent, trying to save it into the small corner inside their minds.   
  
“What will—what’ll happen to you when they…”   
  
“I’ll be fine,” Eda lies. (They’ll take her. They’ll take her instead, but that’s okay. She’d sacrifice the whole world if it meant her baby would be safe.) “Don’t you worry a thing about me, okay? You walk in there, and don’t look back.” She tells her, hugging the girl tighter, stroking the top of her head over and over again. “You walk in there and continue your life as if this never happened. It’ll be hard, but—you have to promise me you’ll try.”   
  
“You’ll promise me you’d try, too, right?” Luz asks her quietly.   
  
She chokes down a sob. “I will.”   
  
“Okay.”   
  
“Thank you, Luz. For everything.” Eda whispers. For coming into her life. For loving her. For making her feel alive again, even if it’s just for a while. “Now go. Go, and don’t look back.”   
  
  
She lets her go.   
  
  
  
Luz finally accepts it.   
  
  
She inched towards the portal, wanting the steps to last forever, but it doesn’t. The place on the other side doesn’t feel like home.   
  
  
_Don’t look back,_ Eda had said, but she looked back anyway. Luz doesn’t want to regret not looking at her for the last time.   
  
Eda flashed a small, reassuring smile.   
  
  
  
She smiles back.   
  
_  
And everything would be okay,_ Eda had thought, because _Luz is safe._ Her _family_ is safe—it was all she that she ever wanted.   
  
  


  
  
The woman waits on what used to be Luz’s room long after she’s gone, sitting silently on the floor, waiting. The clock on the wall ticks loudly in the absence of the night.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
And when they come through the door, she stands up tall with no fear in her eyes.   
  
  
“You’re too late,” Eda tells them. “The girl is gone.”  
  
But she knew that they wouldn’t leave without putting up a fight, without coming back with something to give.  
  
  
But that’s okay. Because _Luz is safe._   
  
  
“Take me instead.”  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> no i will not elaborate further. pain is all you get.
> 
> [my tumblr blog <3](https://hereforthehurts.tumblr.com/)


End file.
